Real-life Lord of the Flies, Solitude, and Grief: Dinner Table Digest № 9
The Dinner Table Digest is an intermittent collection of interesting material from around the internet, curated by Peter Thurley.
The past week or so has been a challenging time for my mental and physical health journey, so I haven’t had as much time to read as I normally do. No mind, I’ve still gathered a few stories together to keep you entertained while I catch up. I’m going to be doing a Special Edition of the Dinner Table Digest shortly, so keep your eyes peeled!
First up is a reflection on grief from Daniel Jonce Evans, the husband of Rachel Held Evans, a progressive Christian author who tragically passed away at 38 years old this time last year. Rachel has been a key influence on me, and I miss her greatly.
Imaginary Future- Daniel Jonce Evans
"Rachel’s dead. I can’t fix it. The greatest gain I’ve found to wring from our collectively drenched grief cloth is to empathize with others who have lost. It’s ok to grieve. It’s ok to stay still. It’s ok to move forward. It’s ok to deal with our shit. Perhaps dealing with shit is more elegant than we realize. I know what it means to lose a future so I know what I’m about to ask is no small request. I ask it nonetheless. I ask that we allow ourselves the grace to embrace the past, the generosity to share griefs in the present, and the fortitude to invent a new imaginary future."
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), exiled from his native France, decided he would write about the effects of solitude as he wandered the European countryside. As many of us find ourselves ‘in exile’ in our own homes, there are lessons that can be learned from where we sit.
What Rousseau knew about solitude - The Paris Review - Gavin McRea
For Rousseau, solitude is the promise of immunity from the hatred of others. Reveries is his attempt to build a quarantine out of words. Piled around himself are his judgments of society, which he believes society’s own judgments cannot penetrate. But then these self-made walls end up closing in on him, oppressing him just as the society’s walls had once done. In his enclosure, cut off from his tormentors, the one who must be made to suffer is himself. “God is just; his will is that I should suffer, and he knows my innocence… Let men and fate do their worst, we must learn to suffer in silence, everything will find its proper place in the end and sooner or later my turn will come.”
A fun story about six boys who were shipwrecked on an island for 15 months in the mid-Sixties and survived, without beating each other senseless, as in Lord of the Flies.
The Real Lord of the Flies - Rutger Bregman - The Guardian
It’s time we told a different kind of story. The real Lord of the Flies is a tale of friendship and loyalty; one that illustrates how much stronger we are if we can lean on each other. After my wife took Peter’s picture, he turned to a cabinet and rummaged around for a bit, then drew out a heavy stack of papers that he laid in my hands. His memoirs, he explained, written for his children and grandchildren. I looked down at the first page. “Life has taught me a great deal,” it began, “including the lesson that you should always look for what is good and positive in people.”
While this (bi)weekly newsletter will be FREE for the first while as I get the kinks sorted out and onto a regular posting schedule, it will eventually transfer to a paid subscription model. It will be inexpensive, only a few bucks a month. As my capacity increases, so too may new subscription opportunities.
Let me know what kind of stories you’d like to see in these Dinner Table Digests - these are as much for you as they are for me!
If you like what you read, PLEASE SHARE WIDELY :)
